I’m always amazed to see kindergarten, middle school, and all other kinds of milestone graduation ceremonies. This never occurred to us when we were kids. We moved straight from grade to high school. Our grade school was grades 1 to 8, and when grade 8 was finished, there was no ceremony. For us there wereContinue reading “Commence to Begin”
Tag Archives: academia
To Paraphrase the Alien in Plan Nine from Outer Space:
“All you faculty are stupid!” We often see a dichotomy between an upper and a lower class. And sometimes this division is false, but persists nonetheless. For example, on an academic campus, we may see a prejudice on the part of maintenance workers who look down on the faculty. I never did. My first realContinue reading “To Paraphrase the Alien in Plan Nine from Outer Space:”
Bias Against Education?
Someone recently said to me, “People in ivory towers must never have heard of hard-toed shoes.” This was clearly a dig from a “working man” (really, a lifelong office jockey) who clearly has some disdain for Academia. This is not the first time I’ve experienced this. I started college two years after my high schoolContinue reading “Bias Against Education?”
What’s Your Passion?
I know a lot of people hate their jobs. And I’m sorry for that. A line I used to say to people was: “I love my work, but I hate my job.” There are times when being a college professor could be very annoying, But the most important thing about that was that I didn’tContinue reading “What’s Your Passion?”
Strange (?) Inspiration Part 2
The musical Man of La Mancha serves as another example of a production that I consider very successful. With its prison set conjuring images of both Western and Eastern theatre, my flexible staging, and the imaginative creation of scenes by adding a few props or costumes, the show served as an excellent example of collaborationContinue reading “Strange (?) Inspiration Part 2”
Strange (?) Inspiration Part 1
A few years back, the music director where I was working and I decided to present the Rodgers and Hammerstein revue, Some Enchanted Evening. For the first part of the process we held vocal auditions and cast the singers with the songs. I then turned to the task of how to stage the piece. NoteContinue reading “Strange (?) Inspiration Part 1”
Notes About Dreams
In a recent blog post I mentioned finding old notes about various things that might become future blog posts. Well, the future is now! Four of the notes begin: “Dream:” and have some mention of what happened in some dream I had years ago. Often when I take notes, such brief phrases are enough toContinue reading “Notes About Dreams”
“She Tipped Me A Crystal”
At Berkeley, we had a summer lunchtime theatre series. Each show rehearsed for two weeks (one week in the morning, one week in the afternoon) and then a week of performances. I directed two shows in two summers: Noel Coward’s We Were Dancing (in the Durham Studio Theatre) and Shakespeare’s Love’s Labour’s Lost—which I cutContinue reading ““She Tipped Me A Crystal””
Hand Me the Whiteboard…
Every time someone starts an in-depth explanation of something, or I need to explain something that requires a variety of steps, I ask for “the whiteboard.” I assume at that point that only a detailed diagram will be able to provide any sensical explanation. I always needed a whiteboard when I covered one of theContinue reading “Hand Me the Whiteboard…”
Don’t Tell Me I Can’t
How has a failure, or apparent failure, set you up for later success? One of the quickest ways to encourage me to do something is to tell me I can’t do it, or to speak the more passive phrase, “it can’t be done.” That’s precisely the motivation I’ve often needed to accomplish a goal. ItContinue reading “Don’t Tell Me I Can’t”
MUSOFYR 